Pottstown school news points to need for budget restraint

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

The Pottstown School Board has taken in recent weeks a series of actions that together paint a telling picture of this challenged borough.

The board learned last week that Pottstown school children are now eligible for free breakfast and lunch in schools under the guidelines of the federal free and reduced lunch program. While the result of the guidelines is good news giving Pottstown children nutritional lunches with total reimbursement, the underlying reality — that Pottstown has a large number of families living close to or within poverty level — is troubling.

We would like to see the school board achieve what council did not. Getting close is not the same as making a statement by holding the line on taxes.

Pottstown schools Business Manager Linda Adams has told members of the school board that the preliminary budget uses the tax increase to close a $856,058 deficit between anticipated revenue and expenditures. One of the most onerous cost items in the budget plan is the $1.2 million increase in pension expenses anticipated for the coming school year.

Another concern, according to school officials, is that a zero tax hike actually causes the district to lose money under Pennsylvania’s convoluted Act 1 requirements.

According to the chart the administration distributed to the board, failing to raise property taxes to the district for the coming school year would have a cumulative impact of more than $7.6 million in revenues lost by the 2018-2019 school year.

But as is shown by Pottstown’s eligibility for free lunch, this is a town where families struggle to make ends meet. Every tax dollar is potentially food off the table or one more bill that doesn’t get paid.

In addition to the glass-half-empty scenario, a zero-tax hike has an upbeat message that shows a district with its finances in order and its eye on attracting homeowners and businesses.

That’s the kind of place we want to be. Achieving a no-tax hike school budget is a good place to start.